With the explosive growth of the Internet, high-speed communications, and digital recording technology, there has been a continued growth in the availability of online media content (such as videos, audio, images, graphics, text, etc.) and the number of instances of users accessing such online media content. For example, video sharing Web sites are incredibly popular and users can use such Web sites to be presented with videos on almost any conceivable subject.
In many instances, media content is configured to be presented with an advertisement. This advertisement can provide a revenue stream for the host of the Web site and/or the provider of the media content. To insure that this revenue stream is not lost, in many instances users cannot view the media content without first viewing the advertisement, or at least a portion of the advertisement.
Frequently, however, a user may object to having to be presented with an advertisement before being able to be presented with desired media content. For example, a user may object because the user does not want to watch the advertisement, because the user does not want to use bandwidth on the media content, or for any other suitable reason. To make matters worse, in many instances a user only becomes aware that an advertisement is to be presented after at least a significant portion of the advertisement has be transferred to the user's user device (e.g., such as a mobile phone).
Accordingly, mechanisms for improving a user's experience when accessing media content are desirable.